The position of war crimes in the statute of the international criminal court

Abstract EN

The international community, after a long period of silence that lasted for nearly half a century, during which no international criminal judicial mechanism to punish and prosecute the perpetrators of international crimes, its efforts to establish a permanent judicial authority to punish international crimes and war criminals led in 2002 to the establishment of the international criminal court.

the statute of the court contains four international crimes, including war crimes.

but this system, which is the product of the consensual treaty between states, is not a complete system without obstacles.

the jurisdiction of the court was restricted and limited according to the statute of the court, which has not included all serious international crimes on the one hand, and it has no authority to exercise its jurisdiction independently.

for this, the international community and humanity needs to develop and amend the statute of the court in a way to include all forms of war crimes to secure a suitable situation to the ICC to carry out its tasks of achieving international criminal justice.